THE 


Westminster  J^sembly: 


THE  EVENTS  LEADING  UP  TO  IT, 
PERSONNEL  OF  THE  BODY,  AND 
ITS  METHOD  OF  WORK 


AN  ADDRESS 


PREPARED  BY  ORDER  OF  EAST  HAr>IOVER  PRESBYTERY,  AND 

DELIVERED  BEFORE  THAT  BODY  APRIL  27,  1897,  IN  THE 

FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN  CHURCH  OF  RICHMOND,  VA^ 


BY 


WILLIAM  WIRT  HENRY. 


Published  by  the  Presbytery. 


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PRINCETON,  N.  J. 


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1897 

Henry, 

Will 

iam 

Wirt, 

1831- 

1900. 

The  Westminster  Assembly 

THE  ^^^  y^    ' 

Westminster  Assembly:*    > 

THE  EVENTS  LEADING  UP  TO  IT^ '  MAY  23  WU    * 
PERSONNEL  OF  THE   BODY,  ANd(^     _,.-^    .- 
ITS  METHOD  OF  WORK ^Jji}ZV^^ 


AN  ADDRESS 

PREPARED  BY  ORDER  OF  EAST  HANOVER  PRESBYTERY,  AND  DEI.IVHRED 
BEFORE  THAT  BODY  APRIL  =7.  iSoy,  IN  THE  FIRST  PRES- 
BYTERIAN CHURCH  OF  RICHMOND,  VA. 


WILLIAM  WIRT  HENRY. 


Published  by  the  Presbytery. 


Whittet  &  Shkimkrson,  General  Printers. 
1897. 


ADDRESS 


Mr.  Moderator,  and  the  Venerable  Presbytery  of  East  Hanover  : 

IN  the  ordinance  of  parliament  which  constituted  the  Westminster 
Assembly,  it  was  stated  that  the  object  sought  was  to  effect 
"  a  further  and  more  perfect  reformation  than  as  yet  hath  been  ob- 
tained" in  the  Church  oi  England  ;  and,  as  the  result  of  its  labors  was 
the  consummation  of  the  Reformation  in  Great  Britain,  I  deem  it  proper, 
before  entering  upon  the  history  of  the  body,  to  sketch  raj^idly  the 
condition  of  the  church  Avhich  led  to  that  memorable  movement  in  the 
sixteenth  century  known  as  the  Reformation,  and  its  progress  in  the 
British  Isles.  We  will  thus  be  better  able  to  estimate  the  importance 
of  the  work  accomplished  by  the  Assembly,  by  recalling  what  had 
been,  and  what  had  not  been  reformed. 

From  the  time  that  Constantine,  in  the  fourth  century,  embraced 
Christianity  and  established  it  as  a  religion  of  the  empire,  the  Bishop 
of  Rome,  the  capital  city,  increased  in  importance  and  in  power  in  the 
church.  It  was  the  eighth  century,  however,  before  he  exhibited,  un- 
mistakably, those  characteristics  which  have  since  distinguished  the 
papacy.  In  that  century  the  worship  of  images  was  enjoined,  prayers 
for  the  dead  began  to  be  offered,  temporal  power  was  assumed  by  the 
Roman  pontiff  over  territory  given  him  by  Pepin,  the  usurper  who 
filled  the  thi'one  of  France,  and  by  his  son  Charlemagne ;  next  came 
rebellion  against  lawful  civil  power  and  arrogant  claims  of  infallibility. 
The  ninth  century  saw  a  rapid  progression  in  corruption  and  in  that 
darkness  which  covered  Christendom  so  long,  and  is  remembered  as  the 
"Dark  Ages."  Preference  was  now  given  to  human  writings  over  the 
Scriptures,  the  domination  of  the  Pope  increased,  ceremonies  were  mul- 
tiplied in  the  church  as  means  of  salvation,  and  godly  men  and  women 
were  persecuted.  In  the  next  several  succeeding  centuries  even  the 
appearance  of  moral  virtue  was  lost  in  Rome,  and  the  church,  now 
governed  by  worthless  prelates,  was  immersed  in  profaueuess,  sensu- 
ality, and  lewdness.  The  effort  to  stem  the  tide  by  decreeing  celi- 
bacy of  the  clergy,  only  added  to  their  corruption.  In  the  eleventh 
century  the  doctrine  of  transubstantiation  was  established  by  the  coun- 
cil of  Placentia.  The  crusades  were  now  undertaken  to  recover  Pal 
estine  from  the  Mahometans,  and  salvation  was  offered  as  the  price  of 


4  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

service  in  them.  The  precious  doctrine  of  salvation  by  grace  was 
denied,  and  salvation  by  works  was  proclaimed.  Then  came  indul- 
gencies  to  commit  sin,  which  were  sold  by  the  Pope  to  raise  money  for 
what  he  called  the  holy  war.  The  power  to  pardon  sins  committed, 
or  to  be  committed,  was  claimed  by  the  Pope  as  the  vice-gerent  of 
God,  acting  in  the  place  of  and  as  Deity.  The  celebrated  Cardinal 
Bellarmine  thus  states  the  power  claimed  by  the  Pope :  "  If  the  Pope 
could  or  should  so  far  err  as  to  command  the  practice  of  vice,  and  to 
forbid  virtuous  actions,  the  church  would  be  bound  to  believe  vices  to 
be  good,  and  virtues  to  be  bad." 

In  order  to  keep  the  people  in  ignorance,  the  reading  of  the  Scrip- 
tures had  been  long  discouraged,  but  in  1229  the  Council  of  Toulouse 
forbade  the  laity  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  prohibited  their  transla- 
tion. About  the  same  time  the  Inquisition  was  instituted  for  the  tor- 
ture and  murder  of  all  who  dared  to  worship  God  aright,  or  who  fell 
under  the  displeasure  of  the  Inquisitors.  Monastic  orders  also  had 
sprung  up,  whereby  a  multitude  of  monks  lived  on  the  credulity  of  the 
people,  charging  for  their  prayers,  and  for  the  privilege  of  kissing  the 
false  relics  of  saints  with  which  they  filled  their  churches  and  monas- 
teries. 

The  kings  of  Christendom  were  infected  with  the  prevailing  super- 
stition, and  sought  from  the  Pope  a  confirmation  of  their  right  to 
reio-n,  and  thus  became  the  servants  of  him  who  claimed  the  right  to 
pull  down  and  set  up  thrones.  The  emperors  had  been  driven  from 
Rome,  and  the  imperial  purple  of  the  Csesars  Avas  changed  for  the 
scarlet  of  the  popes ;  and,  rich  with  the  reward  of  iniquity,  they  lived 
in  more  than  regal  splendor. 

The  church  in  Great  Britain  shared  in  the  corruption  of  the  church 
on  the  continent.  Richard  the  Lion-hearted,  his  brother  John,  and 
Henry  II.,  attempted  indeed  to  defy  the  papal  power,  but  each  was 
made  to  cower  before  it,  and  John  and  Henry  were  craven  enough  to 
hold  their  kingdoms  as  a  gift  from  Innocent  III.,  and  to  pay  him  trib- 
ute as  his  vassals. 

The  doctrine  of  infallibility  of  councils  and  jDopes  led  to  the  punish- 
ment, as  heretics,  of  all  who  refused  to  accept  their  decrees;  and  the 
Church  of  Rome  revelled  in  the  blood  of  holy  men  who  refused  to  obey 
her,  and  who  kept  the  faith  once  delivered  to  the  saints.  The  Wal 
denses,  the  Albigenses,  and  the  followers  of  John  Huss,  in  Europe, 
the  Culdees  of  Scotland,  and  the  Lollards  of  England,  were  put 
to  death  by  the  ten  thousands,  and  holy  men,  such  as  Jerome  of 
Prague,  John  Huss,  Savonarola,  on  the  continent,  and  Lord  Cobham 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  5 

in  Eugland,  were  burned  at  the  stake.  Wickliif  was  persecuted  while 
hving,  and  after  his  death  his  bones  and  his  translation  of  the  Bible 
were  committed  to  the  flames. 

The  vision  of  Saint  Jbhn  was  now  fully  realized,  when  he  saw  the 
vile  woman  who  sat  upon  the  seven  hills  of  Rome,  and  debauched  the 
kings  and  the  peoples  of  the  earth:  "The  woman  arrayed  in  purple 
and  scarlet  color,  and  decked  with  gold  and  precious  stones  and  pearls, 
having  a  golden  cup  in  her  hand  full  of  abominations,  and  filthiness 
of  fornications,  drunk  with  the  blood  of  the  saints,  and  with  the  blood 
of  the  martyrs  of  Jesus." 

But  in  the  tifteeuth  century  the  scourge  of  the  idolatrous  church  was 
sent,  as  foreseen  in  the  Apocalyjjse:  "And  the  four  angels  were  loosed 
which  were  prepared  for  an  hour,  and  a  day,  and  a  month,  and  a  year, 
for  to  slay  the  third  part  of  men,  and  out  of  their  mouths  issued  tire 
a.id  smoke  and  brimstone."  In  the  year  1453  the  four  divisions  of  the 
Turkish  Empire,  already  established  in  Asia,  united  under  Mahomet  II. 
in  an  attack  upon  Constantinople,  using  cannon  for  the  first  time  in  the 
histoi'y  of  wars,  and  in  its  capture  the  last  of  the  emperors  fell,  and 
the. followers  of  the  false  prophet  established  themselves  in  eastern 
Europe,  to  put  to  the  sword  the  Christian  church.  But  God,  who 
restrains  the  wrath  of  man  and  makes  the  remainder  thereof  to  praise 
him,  brought  good  out  of  evil,  and  made  the  inroad  of  the  Mussulman 
to  work  the  reformation  of  the  church.  The  Greek  scholars,  who  had 
congregated  at  Constantinople,  fled  at  its  fall,  and  sought  refuge  in 
Italy.  Aided  by  the  art  of  printing,  discovered  in  1440,  their  teach- 
ing gave  birth  to  what  historians  call,  "The  new  learning."  It  was  at 
first  a  revival  of  the  study  of  the  Greek  masters  in  literature,  but  it 
afterwards  extended  to  the  Latin  and  Hebrew  authors  Not  content 
with  the  study  of  pagan  authors,  it  soon  turned  to  sacred  literature.  As 
Hilkiah  found  the  book  of  the  law  of  the  Lord  given  by  Moses,  which 
had  been  covered  by  dust  and  rubbish  in  the  temple,  and  lain  forgotten 
for  years,  and  which  King  Josiah  brought  forth  and  read  to  thepeojile, 
causing  them  to  renew  their  long-forgotten  covenant  with  God,  so  the 
new  learning  found  the  completed  word  of  God,  long  hidden  from 
view  in  the  Romish  church,  covered  by  the  dust  and  rubbish  of  the 
superstition  of  the  Dai'k  Ages,  and  brought  it  forth,  to  be  ex- 
pounded to  the  people,  and  to  cause  them  to  renew  the  covenant 
of  grace  with  Christ  as  their  Redeemer.  Soon  the  people  were  fur- 
nished with  translations  of  the  holy  book  in  their  own  language, 
Luther  performing  the  task  for  the  Germans,  Lefevre  for  the  French, 
and  Tvndale  and  Coverdale  for  the  English.     The  word  of  God  was. 


6  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

as  ever,  a  two  edged  sword,  and  wherever  it  was  devoutly  read  Ro- 
manism felt  its  keen  edge,  sickened  and  died.  The  papacy  was  aroused 
at  its  danger,  and  fought  for  its  life,  seeking  to  destroy  the  pure  reli- 
gion of  the  word  of  God  by  fire  and  sword;  putting  to  death,  when  in 
its  power,  the  men  who  believed  that  salvation  is  the  gift  of  God, 
offered  to  all  who  have  faith  in  his  Son.  But  the  conscience,  as  well 
as  the  intellect,  of  men  had  been  aroused,  and  the  power  of  the  Pope 
could  no  longer  enslave  them.  Christian  men  of  great  piety  and  learn- 
ing boldly  led  the  new  movement  for  a  reform  in  the  church.  Luther, 
Melancthon,  Zwingle,  Erasmus,  Oecolampadius,  Farel,  and  last,  but 
not  least,  John  Calvin,  on  the  continent ;  Colet,  Tyndale,  Latimer,  and 
Langton,  in  England ;  Knox  and  Melville,  in  Scotland,  united  in  the 
great  reformation  of  religion.  Several  powerful  princes  threw  oflf  the 
shackles  of  papacy  and  protected  the  reformers,  among  them  notably 
Henr}^  VIII.,  of  England,  who  declared  himself  to  be  the  head  of  the 
church  in  his  dominions.  His  action  was  prompted  by  a  quarrel  with 
the  Pope,  who  declined  to  offend  the  Catholic  king  of  Spain  by  divorc- 
ing his  aunt  fi'om  Henry.  Henry  never  heartily  embraced  the  reformed 
faith,  which  at  first  he  had  openly  antagonized,  and  seemed  to  be 
content  to  put  himself  in  the  place  of  the  Pope  in  England  rather  than 
thoroughly  reform  the  faith  of  the  church.  He  thus  gave  a  direction 
to  the  Reformation  in  England  different  from  what  it  had  taken  on  the 
continent,  where  prelacy'  had  been  discarded.  His  great  service  con- 
sisted in  exposing  the  immorality  of  the  monasteries  and  nunneries, 
breaking  them  up  and  confiscating  their  property,  and  in  requiring  the 
universities  to  teach  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  of  the  Bible,  and  its  the- 
ology. His  pious  son,  Edward,  during  his  short  reign,  through  Arch- 
bishop Cranmer,  made  much  greater  progress  in  reforming  the  church) 
and  settled  its  articles  of  faith  and  form  of  worship ;  but  Bloody  Mary, 
his  successor,  attempted  to  undo  all  that  had  been  done,  and  to  restore 
England  to  the  papacy.  Then  came  Elizabeth,  Avho  assumed  again 
the  headship  of  the  church,  and  halting  at  first  between  Roman 
Catholicism  ai^l  Protestantism,  attempted  a  compromise  of  the  two, 
but  finally  restoi'ed  the  reforms  of  Edward.  These,  indeed,  were  only 
partial,  for  while  the  creed  was  cast  in  the  mould  of  Calvinism,  the 
liturgy  and  form  of  government  were  cast  in  the  mould  of  Romanism, 
though  they  have  been  since  further  reformed  by  many  alterations. 
During  her  reign  a  wonderful  change  took  place  in  England  and  Scot- 
land, by  which  both  became  firmly  Protestant.  By  this  time  the  new 
learning  had  stimulated  in  a  wonderful  degree  the  intellect,  as  well  as 
the  religious  faculties,  of  the  people.    It  was  the  period  of  Raleigh  and 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  7 

Cecil,  of  Frobisher  and  Drake,  of  Coke  aud  Bacon,  of  More  and 
Sidney,  of  Spencer  aud  Shakespeare,  the  age  in  which  England  began 
to  stretch  forth  her  hand  to  grasp  North  America.  At  Geneva  John 
C;ilvin  gave  form  to  Protestant  theology  and  church  government  with 
^n  apprehension  of  his  subject  not  surpassed,  if  ever  equalled,  since 
the  days  of  the  Apostle  Paul.  His  pupil,  John  Knox,  carried  his 
teaching  to  Scotland,  and  changed  Roman  Catholicism  there  into 
Presbj'terianism.  In  England  Calvinism  pervaded  the  Protestant 
movement  in  spite  of  the  prelacy  of  the  established  church.  The  old 
Catholic  priesthood  gave  way  to  new  ministers  who  were  ultra  Pro- 
testant, of  the  Geneva  school;  and  the  universities,  from  being  the 
nests  of  papists,  became  the  hotbeds  of  Calvinism.  Eminent  scholars 
occupied  the  professors'  chairs,  and  imparted  the  learning  which  ap- 
peared afterwards  in  the  translation  of  the  Bible  in  the  reign  of  James, 
aud  in  the  Westminster  Assembly'  in  the  reign  of  his  successor.  The 
threat  of  the  Spanish  king  to  invade  England  aroused  a  spirit  of  pa- 
triotism which  pervaded  Catholics  as  well  as  Protestants,  and  the  defeat 
of  the  Armada  raised  the  power  of  the  queen  to  its  highest  pitch. 
She  exercised  it  by  requiring  all  of  her  subjects  to  accept  the  doctrines 
of  the  established  church,  and  to  ^vorship  by  its  forms,  and  persecuted 
both  Catholics  and  Pui'itans  for  non-conformity. 

Puritanism  had  now  become  a  power  in  the  land,  and  its  rise  and 
development  are  of  the  greatest  interest  Under  the  reign  of  Bloody 
Mary  Protestants  fled  from  her  persecutions,  and  found  refuge  on  the 
continent.  In  the  cities  of  refuge  which  protected  them,  they  organ- 
ized English  churches.  In  these  churches  there  arose  controversies 
as  to  church  worship  and  clerical  vestments.  One  party  desired  to 
disturb  as  little  as  possible  the  orders  of  the  English  church,  while 
the  other  desired  to  reform  that  church  by  ridding  it  of  all  that  it  re- 
tained of  Romish  forms.  Calvin  endeavored  to  reconcile  the  pai'ties, 
and  advised  a  ritual  of  greater  purity  than  that  established  by  Edward, 
John  Knox,  who  led  the  extreme  party,  was  satisfied  with  the  ideal  of 
a  liturgy  purified  of  human  tradition,  and  when  the  exiles  returned  to 
England  after  the  accession  of  Elizabeth,  this  party  became  known  as 
l^uriUois.  They  at  first  only  attempted  to  purify  Protestant  worship, 
but  the  effort  of  Elizabeth  to  enforce  uniformity  caused  them  not  only 
to  antagonize  the  forms  but  the  doctrines  of  the  Anglican  church. 
Under  the  iufiueuce  of  Cartwright,  their  great  leader,  the  Puritans 
became  Presbyterians  in  theory,  and  sought  to  assimilate  the 
Church  of  England  to  the  Calvinistic  churches  of  the  continent. 
A  small  fraction  of  them  urged  local  church  government,  and  were 


8  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

known  as  Independents.  On  the  other  hand  the  high  churchmen, 
led  by  Bancroft,  now  first  ckimed  apostoHc  succession  and  divine 
right  for  the  Anglican  church,  a  claim  not  made  by  Cranmer  and 
his  prelates.  As  the  controversy  progressed,  the  high  church  party, 
in  their  antagonism  to  the  Puritans,  became  Arminiaus  in  theol- 
ogy, while  the  Puritans  held  more  firmly  to  Calvinism.  But  there 
was  another  most  important  difference  between  the  contending 
parties.  Geneva  was  a  free  commonwealth,  and  the  English  exiles 
who  found  refuge  there  became  no  less  devoted  to  civil  libert}^  than  to 
the  faith  of  Calvin.  On  their  return  to  England  they  became  the 
stoutest  foes  to  t\ranny.  James,  who  had  been  rebuked  by  Melville, 
when  he  attempted  as  king  of  Scotland  to  lord  it  over  the  kirk,  de- 
clared, after  mounting  the  throne  of  England,  in  favor  of  prelacy, 
saying:  "A  Scottish  Presbytery  as  well  fittith  with  monai'chy  as  God 
with  the  devil !     No  Bishop  ;  no  King!  " 

The  Anglican  church  thereafter  supported  the  Stuarts  in  their  efforts 
to  blot  out  the  liberties  of  England,  while  the  Puritan  dissenters,  by 
whatever  name  they  were  called,  stood  for  civil  liberty  and  a  church 
cleansed  from  all  popish  impurities.  The  indebtedness  of  the  world 
to  the  Puritans  is  incalculable  The  liberty  in  church  and  state  which 
has  been  the  outgrowth  of  their  sti-uggle  has  not  blessed  Great  Britain 
alone,  established  as  it  was  by  the  Revolution  of  1688,  which  put  Wil- 
liam and  Mary  on  the  throne,  and  made  the  England  of  the  present 
day.  It  was  embodied  in  the  liberal  charters  under  which  English- 
men peopled  North  America,  and  its  full  development  is  seen  to-day  in 
the  civil  and  religious  liberty  we  enjoy,  the  beneficence  of  which  all 
Europe  feels.  In  the  persecutions  which  the  Puritans  experienced  un- 
der James  and  Charles,  they  were  driven  to  an  austerity  in  manners 
and  religious  faith  which  their  enemies  have  used  in  the  attempt  to 
make  them  despicable  in  the  eyes  of  the  world.  But,  while  not  free 
from  the  frailties  of  human  nature,  they  were  immeasurably  superior 
to  the  men  with  whom  they  contended ;  and  they  numbered  in  their 
ranks,  and  in  their  allies,  sooner  or  later,  some  of  the  most  accom- 
plished men  of  their  age,  men  far  removed  from  the  narrow-minded 
fanaticism  ascribed  to  their  party  in  Butler's  Iludihras  and  Claren- 
don's War  of  the  Rebellion.  Such  were  Elliott,  Hampden,  Pym,  Rus- 
sell, Sidney,  Vane,  Hutchinson,  Essex,  Milton,  Selden,  and  Hale. 
Indeed,  it  seems  that  it  was  the  regiments  of  the  "  Invincibles "  of 
Cromwell,  organized  by  him  on  the  principle  of  religious  enthusiasm, 
little  short  of  fanaticism,  which  has  given  the  impression  of  Puritanism 
which  has  so  largely  prevailed.     But  whoever  desires  an  accurate  pic- 


The  Westmixsi er  Assembly.  9 

ture  of  the  real  Puritau  will  find  it  in  the  delightful  memoir  of  Col. 
Hutchinson  by  his  clever  widow. 

James  I.  attempted  through  his  Court  of  Ecclesiastical  Commission 
to  destroy  Puritanism,  but  he  unwittingly  did  more  to  increase  the 
numbers  and  zeal  of  the  party  than  any  one  had  ever  done.  One  of  his 
earliest  acts  was  the  appointment  ot  a  commission  of  learned  men  to 
make  a  new  translation  of  the  Bible.  In  IGll  they  completed  their 
work,  and  gave  the  accurate  and  beautiful  translation  which  has  held 
its  place  among  English-speaking  people  until  our  own  da}'.  Upon  its 
appearance,  as  has  been  said  by  one  of  her  great  historians,  "Eng- 
land became  the  people  of  a  book,  and  that  book  was  the  Bible."  It 
became  familiar  to  every  Englishman,  and  its  truths,  clothed  with  the 
foi'ce  and  beauty  of  its  language,  kindled  a  startling  enthusiasm. 
Everywhere  one  heard  theological  questions  discussed,  and  the  Bible 
quoted,  and  the  claims  of  prelacy  and  royalty  to  divine  right  ceased  to 
be  respected  in  proportion  to  the  enlightenment  of  the  people.  Heed- 
less of  the  rising  storm,  the  king  became  more  and  more  despotic,  de- 
claring all  to  be  Puritans  who  opposed  his  claim  to  absolute  jDreroga- 
tive.  Perceiving  that  the  Puritans  were  Calvinists,  he  took  into  his 
favor  those  who  embraced  Arminianism,  and  thus  brought  about  two 
hostile  combinations,  the  one  composed  of  those  who  advocated  des- 
potism in  the  state  and  error  in  the  church,  the  other  of  those  who 
advocated  civil  liberty  and  Sound  theology.  He  had  for  his  active 
agent  Bancroft,  now  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  who  deposed  a  great 
number  of  ministers  because  of  their  Calvinistic  faith,  and  filled  their 
places  with  Arminian  divines,  ready  to  do  his  bidding.  So  general 
was  this,  that  when  one  was  asked  what  Ai'minians  hold,  he  replied 
wittily,  but  truly,  "all  the  good  places  in  the  church."  The  nation, 
already  disgusted  by  the  truckling  policy  of  the  king  toward  Catholic 
Spain,  became  alarmed  at  the  persistent  efforts  to  establish  despotic 
powers  in  church  and  state,  and  tlie  ranks  of  the  Puritans  were  soon 
filled  with  men  who  before  had  shown  no  sympathy  with  them  in  their 
sufferings  for  conscience'  sake,  but  who  were  not  willing  to  relinquish 
that  civil  liberty  which  had  been  the  boasted  inheritance  of  English- 
men. 

Charles  succeeded  his  father  in  1(125,  while  the  nation  was  in  this 
perturbed  state,  and,  with  what  seemed  a  judicial  blindness,  not  only 
attempted  to  rule  with  increased  despotism,  but  showed  himself 
utterly  unprincipled  by  breaking  every  promise  made  to  his  parlia- 
ments for  redress  of  grievances,  by  which  he  had  induced  them  to 
grant  him  supplies.     Two  most  dangerous  men  became  his  trusted 


10  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

counselors,  Archbishop  Laud  and  the  Earl  of  Strafford.  Laud  claimed 
for  the  Anglican  bishops  divine  right  as  the  successors  of  the  apostles, 
and  the  bishops'  courts  persecuted  every  one  who  denied  the  claim. 
The  king  having  married  a  pajDist,  the  daughter  of  the  French  king, 
was  believed  to  be  inclined  to  that  faith,  along  with  Laud,  and  their 
increased  severity  towards  the  Puritans  strengthened  that  belief  in 
the  minds  of  the  people.  Strafford  was  the  embodiment  of  tyranny, 
and  he  deliberately  planned  to  make  Charles  the  absolute  ruler  of 
England,  independent  of,  and  superior  to,  parliaments,  and  to  put  the 
estates  and  personal  liberties  of  the  whole  people  at  the  disposal  of 
the  crown.  For  eleven  years  no  parliament  was  called,  and  in  the 
meanwhile  large  sums  were  exacted  by  illegal  means,  and  men  who 
claimed  civil  rights  were  thrown  into  prison. 

Two  incidents  occurred  in  the  meanwhile  which  brought  the  con- 
flict between  Charles  and  the  peojDle  to  an  issue.  The  one  was  the 
patriotic  resolve  of  John  Hampden  to  resist  the  collection  of  the  illegal 
tax  demanded  of  him  by  the  king's  officers,  for  which  judgment  was 
pronounced  against  him  by  a  subservient  court,  and  he  cast  into 
prison.  The  corruption  of  the  highest  court  in  the  kingdom,  which 
thus  decided  against  the  express  provisions  of  Magna  Charta  and 
the  Bill  of  Eights,  consented  to  by  Charles  himself,  added  fuel  to  the 
flame  already  kindled.  The  other  incident  led  directly  to  the  bursting 
out  of  that  flame,  which  destroyed  the  faithless  king  and  his  wicked 
advisers.  At  the  instance  of  Laud,  the  king  attemped  to  force  upon 
Presbyterian  Scotland  the  whole  mass  of  prelatic  rites  and  ceremo- 
nies. The  Dean  of  Edinburgh,  at  the  bidding  of  the  king,  attempted 
to  introduce  the  English  liturgy  in  Saint  Giles  in  the  presence  of  the 
privy  council,  magistrates,  and  a  large  body  of  people,  on  Sunday, 
July  23,  1G37.  A  plain  woman,  Jennie  Geddes  by  name,  outraged  at 
the  service,  hurled  the  stool  on  which  she  had  been  sitting  at  the 
head  of  the  dean.  A  tumult  arose  in  the  congregation,  and  the  out- 
burst of  popular  indignation  soon  pervaded  Scotland,  and  the  clergy 
were  unable  to  proceed  with  the  service  they  had  been  commanded  to 
use.  The  people  entered  into  a  covenant  to  oppose  prelacy  and  up- 
hold Presbyterianisixi,  which  was  eagerly  signed  throughout  the  king- 
dom. It  is  known  as  the  National  Covenant  of  1638.  Charles  at  once 
raised  an  army  to  put  down  the  Scottish  rebellion,  as  he  called  it,  but 
he  found  a  Scottish  army  at  the  boi-der  ready  to  meet  him,  with 
which  he  deemed  it  better  to  make  a  truce,  which  he  did  not  intend 
to  keep.  But  to  subdue  Scotland  he  was  forced  to  raise  more  money 
than  he  could  gather  from  forced  loans  and  other  illegal  exactions,  and 


mimmm 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  11 

reluctantly  he  called  a  parliament.  This  body,  knowing  the  treachery 
of  the  king,  demanded  redress  of  grievances  before  granting  supplies, 
and  the  king,  in  anger,  dissolved  it,  and  threw  the  leading  members 
into  prison.  The  convocation  of  the  established  church  now  came  to 
his  aid,  a  d  raised  for  him  a  considerable  sum  of  money.  With  this 
he  broke  faith  with  the  Scots,  and  marched  an  army  northward  again 
to  subdue  them.  He  found  himself  anticipated  before  he  reached  the 
border;  for  the  Scots,  aware  of  his  design,  had  marched  their  army 
into  England  Unable  again  to  cope  with  them,  Charles  arranged  a 
cessation  of  hostilities  for  two  months,  with  a  promise  to  support  their 
army  in  the  meanwhile.  He  soon  found  his  treasury  exhausted  and 
himself  forced  to  summon  another  parliament,  to  meet  in  the  fall  of 
1640.  The  English  spirit  had  been  now  fully  aroused,  and  the  people 
returned  their  ablest  and  most  determined  leaders;  nor  has  England 
ever  had  abler  or  more  patriotic  men.  John  Pym  was  the  leader  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  and  there  never  has  been  a  greater  parlia- 
mentary leader.  The  necessity  of  a  thorough  reform  in  church  and 
state  was  recognized,  and  the  body  set  at  once  to  work  to  effect  it. 
Laud  was  impeached  and  sent  to  the  tower,  to  be  afterwards  executed, 
and  the  ministers  he  had  displaced  were  restored  to  their  livings. 
Strafford  was  attainted  and  brought  to  the  block.  The  courts  of  the 
Star  Chamber  and  of  the  High  Ecclesiastical  Commission  were  abol- 
ished. The  exaction  of  forced  loans  was  declared  illegal;  the  judg- 
ment against  Hampden  was  annulled,  and  a  bill  was  passed  which 
declared  that  the  parliament  should  not  be  dissolved  without  its  con- 
sent. The  Protestant  zeal  of  the  body  was  raised  to  the  highest  pitch 
by  a  Catholic  rising  in  Ireland,  believed  to  have  been  favored  by 
Charles,  in  which  it  was  estimated  that  lifty  thousand  Englishmen 
perished.  The  king,  with  his  wimttd  duplicit}',  while  formally  ap- 
proving the  acts  of  jDarliament,  was  secretly  plotting  with  the  royalists 
in  Scotland  to  effect  a  reconciliation  with  that  kingdom,  and  obtain  its 
support  against  the  English  piirliament.  The  leaders  in  that  body, 
finding  his  strength  lay  mainly  in  the  established  church,  took  steps 
to  reduce  its  power  and  wealth.  At  first  it  was  not  proposed  to  effect 
a  radical  change  in  its  constitution,  but  onh'  to  purge  it  of  its  popish 
taints  and  to  curtail  the  powers  of  the  bishops  by  the  creation  of  a 
council  of  ministers.  The  first  step  was  the  severance  of  the  clergy 
from  all  secular  or  state  ofl&ces,  and  a  demand  was  made,  backed  by  a 
petition  of  seven  hundred  ministers  of  the  church,  that  the  bishops  be 
tjxcluded  from  the  House  of  Lords.  After  a  severe  struggle  this  was 
finally  effected.     To  fui-ther  reform  the  church,  an  act  for  calling  an 


12  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

assembly  of  divines  was  presented  to  tLe  king,  which  he  rejected. 
The  attempt  of  Charles  in  person  to  arrest  the  five  leading  members 
of  the  House  of  Commons  during  its  session  on  January  4,  1642,  was 
the  opening  scene  of  the  civil  war  that  ensued.  Defeated  in  his  effort, 
the  king  left  London,  and  raised  an  army,  with  which  he  commenced 
hostilities  with  the  purpose  of  crushing  the  parliament.  That  bod}' 
raised  an  army  for  its  defence,  and  continued  its  work  of  reform,  and 
with  that  in  view,  abolished,  in  one  act,  the  whole  of  the  prelatical 
hierarchy  which  had  so  constantly  supported  the  king  in  his  t^-ranny. 
Parliament  soon  realized  the  need  of  aid  from  Scotland  and  of  sym- 
pathy abroad  to  maintain  the  war  upon  which  it  was  now  entered,  and 
as  prelacy,  so  hated  north  of  the  Tweed,  was  now  out  of  the  way,  it 
determined  to  attempt  to  assimilate  the  church  in  England  with  the 
church  in  Scotland  and  the  Protestant  churches  on  the  continent,  as  a 
first  step  towards  securing  that  aid.  On  June  12,  1643,  an  ordinance 
was  passed  by  the  two  houses,  to  convene  on  July  1,  1643,  an  assembly 
of  learned  and  godly  divines  and  others,  to  advise  with  parliament  in 
settling  for  the  church  in  England  its  doctrine,  government  and  form 
of  worship.  The  ordinance  sets  forth  the  occasion  of  its  passage  as 
follows : 

"Whereas,  amongst  the  infinite  blessings  of  Almight}'  God  upon  this 
nation,  none  is  nor  can  be  more  dear  unto  us  than  the  purit}'  of  our 
religion ;  and  for  that,  as  yet,  many  things  remain  in  the  liturgy,  dis- 
cipline and  government  of  the  church,  which  do  necessarily  require  a 
further  and  more  perfect  reformation  than  as  yet  hath  been  obtained ; 
and,  whereas,  it  has  been  declared  and  resolved  by  the  Lords  and 
Commons  assembled  in  parliament,  that  the  present  church  govern- 
ment, by  ai'chbishops,  bishops,  their  chancellors,  commissaries,  deans, 
and  chapters,  archdeacons,  and  other  ecclesiastical  officers  depending 
upon  the  hierarchy,  is  evil,  and  justly  offensive  and  burdensome  to  the 
kingdom,  a  great  impediment  to  reformation  and  growth  of  religion, 
and  very  prejudicial  to  the  state  and  government  of  this  kingdom; 
and,  therefore,  they  have  resolved,  that  the  same  shall  be  taken  away, 
and  that  such  a  government  shall  be  settled  in  the  church  as  may  be 
most  agreeable  to  God's  holy  word,  and  most  apt  to  pi-ocure  and  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  the  church  at  home,  and  nearer  agreement  with  the 
Church  of  Scotland  and  other  reformed  churches  abroad;  and  for  the 
better  effecting  hereof,  and  for  the  vindicating  and  clearing  of  the 
doctrine  of  the  Church  of  England  from  all  false  calumnies  and  asper- 
sions, it  is  thought  tit  and  necessary  to  call  an  assembly  of  learned, 
godly,  and  judicious  divines,  who,  together  with  some  members  of  both 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  13 

houses  of  parliament,  are  to  consult  and  advise  of  such  matters  and 
things  touching  the  premises  as  shall  be  proposed,  by  both  or  either 
of  the  houses  of  parliament,  and  to  give  their  advice  and  counsel 
therein,  to  both  or  either  of  the  said  houses,  when,  and  as  often,  as 
they  shall  be  thereunto  required." 

The  ordinance  contained  the  names  of  one  hundred  and  fifty-one 
persons  who  were  to  constitute  the  assembly,  of  whom  ten  were  mem- 
bers of  the  House  of  Lords  and  twenty  were  members  of  the  House 
of  Commons.  Thus  a  hundred  and  twenty- one  were  divines,  and 
thirty  were  laymen.  No  one  of  the  commission  that  thirty-two  years 
before  translated  the  Bible  for  King  James  appears  on  the  list.  If 
any  were  alive  they  were  too  old  for  the  work.  Dr.  "William  Twisse 
was  named  as  prolocutor,  or  moderator,  in  the  ordinance,  and  he 
opened  the  assembly  on  the  day  appointed  with  a  sermon  on  the  text : 
"I  will  not  leave  you  comfortless,"  John  xiv.  18,  delivered  in  the  Abbey 
church  in  Westminster  before  a  great  congregation,  in  which  sat  the 
members  of  the  two  houses  of  parliament  and  many  of  the  divines 
named  in  the  ordinance.  The  assembly  then  went  into  the  chapel  of 
Henry  VII.,  where  the  roll  was  called.  The  body  continued  to  meet 
in  this  chapel  until  the  approach  of  winter,  when,  finding  it  too  cold  a 
place,  it  adjourned  to  the  Jerusalem  Chamber,  where  the  sessions  were 
afterwards  held.  It  was  most  appropriate  to  connect  the  history  of 
this  memorable  assembly  with  the  venerable  Abbey,  which  is  such  a 
depository  of  all  that  is  great  in  English  histoiy.  The  first  church 
built  upon  the  spot  now  occupied  by  the  Abbey  was  the  pious  work  of 
Sebert,  king  of  the  East  Saxons,  upon  his  conversion  to  Christianity  in 
the  sixth  century,  and  is  believed  to  have  been  intended  as  a  memoi'ial 
of  the  visit  of  Saint  Augustine  to  England  when  he  attacked  and  over- 
threw the  Pelagian  heresy  in  the  native  country  of  its  author.  The 
beautiful  chapel  of  Henry  VII.  was  built  in  1502,  and  dedicated  to 
the  Virgin  Mary  by  this  the  last  of  the  media'val  kings  of  England.  It 
has  been  the  burial-place  of  noarh^  ever}'  king  since  its  erection,  as 
the  Abbey  has  been  the  place  of  their  coronation.  This  has  been 
beautifully  expressed  by  the  poet  Waller  in  the  lines, 

"  That  antiqiu'  pile  behold, 
Where  roj-al  heads  receive  the  sacred  gold : 
It  gives  theiu  crowns,  and  does  their  ashes  keep; 
These  made  like  gods,  there  like  mortiils  sleep, 
Making  the  circle  of  their  reign  complete, 
These  suns  of  empire,  where  they  rise  they  set." 

The  Jerusalem  Chamber  was  built  by  Abbot  Littliugton  in   the 


14  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

lattei'  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  as  a  guest  chamber  for  his  house, 
and  took  its  name  from  the  tapestry  pictures  of  the  history  of  the  siege 
of  Jerusalem  with  which  it  was  hung.  It  had  been  made  memorable 
by  the  death  of  Henry  IV.  from  apoplexy,  March  20,  1413,  while  he 
was  preparing  for  a  visit  to  the  holy  land.  Shakespeare  thus  de- 
scribes the  scene: 

King  Henry  :    "  Doth  any  name  particular  belong 

Unto  the  lodging  where  I  first  did  swoon?" 
Warwick  :  "  'Tis  called  Jerusalem,  my  noble  Lord." 

King  Henry  :     "Laud  be  to  God !   even  there  my  life  must  end. 

It  hath  been  prophesied  to  me  many  years, 

I  should  not  die  but  in  Jerusalem  ; 

Which  vainly  I  supposed  the  Holy  Land  ; 

But  bear  me  to  that  chamber;  there  I'll  lie ; 

In  that  Jerusalem  shall  Henry  die." 

Now  a  body  of  the  most  pious  and  learned  men  of  English  history 
were  to  occupy  these  venerable  chambers,  to  restore  the  pure  theology 
of  Augustine;  to  teach  a  wicked  king  that  resistance  to  tyrants  is 
obedience  to  God  ;  over  the  ashes  of  the  greatest  and  the  noblest  of 
the  English  race,  to  proclaim  the  precious  doctrine  of  the  resurrection 
of  the  dead  through  a  risen  Saviour ;  to  point  from  this  most  vener- 
able but  perishing  pile  to  the  new  Jerusalem,  not  built  with  hands, 
eternal  in  the  heavens. 

Among  the  rules  for  the  regulation  of  the  body  framed  by  parlia- 
ment, two  are  worthy  of  mention:  1,  That  "every  member,  at  his 
first  entry  into  the  assembl}',  shall  make  serious  and  solemn  protesta- 
tion not  to  maintain  anything  but  what  he  believes  to  be  the  truth,  in 
sincerity,  when  discovered  unto  him";  the  other,  that  "What  any 
undertakes  to  prove  as  necessary,  he  shall  make  good  out  of  the  Scrip- 
ture." 

The  body  at  first  undertook  to  revise  the  thirty-nine  articles  of  the 
Church  of  England,  and  had  proceeded  as  far  as  the  first  fifteen  when 
an  order  came  from  parliament  to  proceed  at  once  to  the  forming  of  a 
Directory  of  Worship  and  Discipline,  and  a  form  of  government  to 
take  the  place  of  what  had  been  set  aside.  In  the  meanwhile  impor- 
tant events  had  taken  place  which  materiall}'  changed  the  purpose  of 
the  assembly.  A  convention  of  estates,  and  a  General  Assembly  of  the 
Kirk  of  Scotland,  had  been  called  to  meet  in  Edinburgh  on  the  second 
of  August,  in  order  that  the  niiairs  of  that  kingdom,  both  civil  and 
religious,  might  be  put  upon  a  firmer  basis  amidst  the  dangers  that 
threatened  them.  The  war  had  at  first  gone  against  the  forces  of  par- 
liament, and  the  necessity  of  obtaining  aid  from  Scotland  had  become 


The  W'estminsteh  Assembly.  15 

more  pressing.  Parliament  thereupon  sent  as  commissioners  to  the 
two  bodies  the  Earl  of  Rutland,  Sir  William  Armyn,  Sir  Henry  Vane, 
Jr.,  Mr.  Hatcher,  and  i\Ir.  Darby.  The  Assembly  jained  with  them  two 
of  its  members,  Mr.  Marshall  and  Mr.  Nye.  These  commissioners 
bore  letters  from  the  parliament  and  Assembly,  describing  the  deplor- 
able condition  of  the  kingdom  of  England,  and  supplicating  aid  in 
their  struggles  against  the  enemies  of  civil  and  religious  liberty.  So 
touching  was  the  appeal,  that  we  are  told  it  drew  tears  from  the  eyes 
of  many  of  the  stur<ly  Scotchmen.  They  determined  to  go  at  once  to 
the  aid  of  their  Eughsh  co-patriots.  But  a  seeming  difficulty  had  to  be 
overcome,  arising  from  the  diflferent  motives  which  had  theretofore  in- 
spired the  action  of  the  two  kingdoms  The  struggle  in  England  had 
for  its  primary  object  the  restoration  of  civil  liberty,  and  the  reform  of 
the  church  was  but  a  secondary  consideration  forced  upon  parliament, 
nearly  every  member  of  which  was  a  member  of  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, by  the  attitude  of  j^relacy  towards  the  movement.  In  Scotland 
the  movement  had  for  its  object  the  restoration  of  the  church  to  its 
previous  Presbyterian  model,  set  by  Knox  disentangled  from  the  par- 
tial prelacy  forced  upon  it  by  the  Stuarts.  The  fear  that  harles, 
after  overthrowing  tho  liberties  of  England,  would  attack  those  of 
Scotland,  was  indeed  entertained  by  many,  but  it  was  not  aroused  in  the 
breast  of  the  people,  till  it  was  discovered  that  the  king  was  enlisting  a 
force  of  Irish  Catholics  to  support  a  rising  in  the  Highlands  under  the 
Earl  of  Montrose,  which  aimed  at  the  overthrow  of  the  government  at 
Edinburgh.  It  Avas  at  this  juncture  that  the  English  Commissioners 
arrived  in  Scotland. 

Alexander  Henderson  on  the  part  of  the  Scotch,  and  Sir  Henry 
Vane  on  the  part  of  the  English,  soon  came  to  an  agi'eement  to  bind 
the  two  kingdoms  by  a  solemn  League  and  Covenant  in  the  defence 
of  civil  liberty  and  pure  religion.  This  celebrated  paper  was  said  to 
have  been  drawn  by  Henderson,  the  moderator  of  the  Scotch  Assem- 
bly, and  if  so,  it  shows  that  he  was  an  accomplished  statesman,  as  well 
as  a  learned  divine.  It  binds  with  a  solemu  oath  to  the  preservation 
of  the  reformed  religion  in  the  Church  of  Scotland,  in  doctrine,  wor- 
ship, discipline,  and  government;  to  the  reformation  of  religion  in  the 
kingdoms  of  England  and  Ireland,  in  doctrine,  worship,  discipline, 
and  government  according  to  the  word  of  God  and  the  example  of  the 
best  reformed  churches;  to  the  endp.:ivor  to  bring  the  church  in  the 
kingdoms  to  the  neai-est  conjunction  and  uniformity  in  faith,  govern- 
ment, worship,  and  catechising;  to  the  endeavor  to  extirpate  popery, 
prelacy,  superstition,  heresy,  schism,  profaneness,  and  whatsoever  shall 


16  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

be  found  contrary  to  sound  doctrine  and  the  power  of  godliness;  to  the 
endeavor,  with  their  estates  and  lives,  mutually  to  preserve  the  rights 
and  privileges  of  the  parliaments,  and  the  liberties  of  the  kingdoms ; 
to  preserve  and  defend  the  king's  pei'son  and  authority,  in  the  preser- 
vation and  defence  of  the  true  religion  and  the  liberties  of  the  king- 
doms; to  preserve  a  firm  peace  and  union  between  Scotland  and  Eng- 
land, and  zealously  to  assist  and  defend  all  who  shall  enter  into  the 
League  and  the  Covenant  The  paper  closes  with  a  humble  confession 
of  sin,  and  a  purpose  of  amendment  and  reform,  that  God  may  turn 
away  his  wrath,  and  establish  truth  and  peace  in  the  land. 

The  Convention  of  Estates  and  Scotch  Assembly  cordially  and 
unanimously  adopted  the  League  and  Covenant  without  dela}^  and  sent 
it  b^'  a  special  messenger  to  London.  There  on  the  twenty -fifth  of 
September,  1643,  it  was  ratified  by  both  Houses  of  Parliament  and 
the  Assembly,  in  the  church  of  St.  Margaret,  Westminster,  each  mem- 
ber, with  bare  head  and  right  hand  uplifted,  swearing  to  its  faithful 
perforraance. 

This  changed  the  work  of  the  Assembly.  The  task  laid  upon  it  now 
was  the  framing  of  a  system  of  theology,  of  church  government,  and 
of  worship),  that  would  be  accepted  and  adopted  by  the  reformed 
churches  in  the  three  kingdoms.  Upon  this  task  the  Assembly  en- 
tered, disregarding  its  ]Drevious  work.  In  its  accomplishment  it  was 
greatly  aided,  I  may  say  led,  by  the  able  commissioners  sent  by  the 
Scottish  Assembly  to  take  part  in  its  deliberations,  who,  however,  de- 
clined to  vote,  though  invited  to  do  so. 

And  now  that  the  Assembly  has  entered  upon  the  work  that  made  it 
famous,  let  us  turn  back  the  clock  of  time  two  hundred  and  fifty-three 
years,  and  look  in  upon  it,  note  its  members,  its  method  of  work,  and 
what  it  accomplished. 

As  we  enter  the  chamber  from  the  outer  door  a  picturesque  scene  is 
presented.  The  members  are  clothed  in  a  variety  of  costumes,  all, 
however,  of  grave  character,  and  strongly  contrasting  in  the  want  of 
ornamentation  with  the  gay  fopperies  of  the  cavaliers,  which  one  had 
been  accustomed  to  see  on  the  streets  of  London.  The  English  mem- 
bers wear  knee  breeches  with  black  hose,  some  with  boots,  and  others 
with  gaiters  covering  their  ankles  and  legs.  They  have  long  waist- 
coats buttoned  up  so  as  completely  to  conceal  their  shirt-bosoms; 
around  their  necks  are  white  bauds,  not  very  large,  yet  sufficient  to 
reach  the  shoulders.  The  members  of  parhament  wear  short  cloaks 
of  various  patterns  and  fashions ;  the  divines  wear  gowns  of  difierent 
fashions  also,  a  few  exhibit  the  canonicals  of  the  Church  of  England. 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  17 

The  Scotch  have  gray  hose,  leather  girdles  ai'ouud  their  waists,  and 
capacious  woollen  coats;  around  their  necks  are  neckties  of  ditterent 
colors.  All  have  short  hair  on  their  heads,  while  some  have  clean- 
shaven faces,  and  others  beards,  generally  gray. 

At  the  upper  end  of  the  room  Dr.  Twisse,  the  prolocutor,  sits  in  a 
chair  on  a  frame  raised  a  foot  from  the  floor.  Before  him  two  chairs 
are  placed  on  the  floor,  in  one  of  which  sits  Dr  Cornelius  Burgess, 
one  of  the  two  assessors  who  preside  in  the  absence  of  the  prolocutor; 
the  other  chair  is  vacant,  owing  to  an  attack  of  the  gout  which  detains 
Mr.  White,  the  other  assessor.  In  front  of  these  a  long  table  stands, 
at  which  the  two  scribes,  Rev.  Henry  Robrough  and  Mr.  Adoniram 
Byfield,  sit ;  next  to  this  table,  on  the  prolocutor's  right  hand,  there 
are  three  or  four  ranks  of  benches:  on  the  lowest  one  the  six  Scotch 
commissioners  sit ;  back  of  them  are  the  members  of  parliament,  Avho 
are  deputed  as  members  of  the  Assembly.  On  the  prolocutor's  left 
hand  there  are  three  or  four  ranks  of  benches,  which  occupy  the  entire 
length  of  the  room,  and  have  their  duplicates  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  lower  end,  reaching  to  those  first  described  as  on  the  right  hand. 
On  these  sit  the  English  divines.  From  the  chimne}',  at  the  lower 
end  of  the  room,  to  the  door  is  an  open  space,  which  is  used  by  the 
lords  of  parliament,  who  sit  in  the  chairs  around  the  fii-e.  Over  the 
mantel  is  a  painting  of  the  death  of  Henry  IV.,  and  texts  relating  to 
Jerusalem.  We  have  hardly  time  to  look  around  and  take  in  the 
scene,  before  Dr.  Twisse  raps  the  body  to  order,  and  opens  the  session 
with  a  short  prayer.  He  shows  his  great  learning  in  the  wording  of 
his  petition,  and  his  patriotism  in  his  earnest  supplication  for  the  suc- 
cess of  the  cause  of  pai'liament,  which  he  presents  before  the  throne 
of  grace  as  the  cause  of  civil  liberty  and  Christian  purity.  The  invo- 
cation ended,  we  may  examine  more  closely  the  body  while  the  clerk 
is  reading  the  minutes  of  the  preceding  day,  and  calling  the  ducket 
of  business  Selected  by  parliament  for  their  piety  and  learning,  the 
members  show  in  their  faces  the  benignity  of  the  Christian  and  the 
refinement  of  the  scholar.  Nearh'  every  one  is  a  university  graduate, 
educated  at  Oxford,  Cambridge,  or  St.  Andrews.  Coming  from  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  kingdom,  they  represent  the  different  phases  of 
Christianity  which  prevail,  though  most  of  them  have  had  Episcopal 
ordination.  They  are  easily  classified,  as  Erastians,  holding  that  the 
power  of  punishing  all  off'ences,  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  belongs  to  the 
civil  magistrate,  and  denying  to  the  church  the  power  of  censure  or  ex- 
communication of  unworthy  members;  Independents,  holding  that 
each  congregation  has  complete  power  over  its  members,  and  that 
there  is  no  supervisory  power  over  the  individual  church  in  any  kind 


18  The  WESTjnNSTER  Assembly. 

of  church  council ;  Presbyterians,  holding  that  ecclesiastical  censures 
are  to  be  inflicted  by  church  courts,  and  these  should  consist  of 
sessions,  presbyteries,  synods  and  assemblies,  constituted  of  elders, 
both  teaching  and  preaching,  and  that  these,  with  deacons,  are  the 
proper  church  officers ;  and  the  parity  of  the  ministry.  But  few 
Episcopalians  attended  the  Assembly,  and  these  had  all  withdrawn 
after  the  adoption  of  the  League  and  Covenant,  except  Dr.  Featly,  who 
was  afterwards  expelled  for  improper  conduct,  in  revealing  the  pro- 
ceedings to  Archbishop  Usher,  in  violation  of  the  directions  of  the 
ordinance  of  parliament. 

We  find  the  leaders  of  the  Erastians  to  be  able  men,  especially  emi- 
nent for  their  rabbinical  learning.  They  are  John  Selden,  now  some- 
X  what  advanced  in  age,  one  of  the  most  learned  men  and  accomplished 
lawyers  England  ever  produced,  pronounced  by  the  learned  Grotius  to 
be  "  the  glory  of  the  English  nation,"  a  man  whose  learning  had 
proved  too  great  for  his  mental  digestion,  and  whose  conclusions  were, 
therefore,  not  always  sound;  Dr.  John  Lightfoot,  a  great  scholar, 
modest,  temperate  in  all  things,  except  in  his  insatiable  thirst  for 
knowledge,  and  more  learned  in  biblical  studies  than  the  great  Selden 
himself.  To  these  is  joined  Rev.  Thomas  Coleman,  also  greatly  dis- 
tinguished as  a  scholar. 

Five  able  and  consecrated  divines  led  the  Independents:  Thomas 
Goodwin,  Sidrach  Simpson,  Philip  Nye,  Jeremiah  Burroughs,  and 
William  Bridge.  They  have  been  exiles  in  Holland  during  the  eccle- 
siastical reign  of  Archbishop  Laud,  and  have  returned  upon  the  meet- 
ing of  parliament. 

These  parties,  small  in  their  numbers,  derive  their  importance 
from  the  forces  back  of  them.  The  parliament,  loth  to  give  up 
power,  sustain  the  Erastians;  the  army,  with  the  Independents  of 
Cromw' ell's  "Ironsides,"  give  increasing  strength  to  the  ludej^endents. 
In  the  Assembly  the  Presbyterians  greatly  preponderate,  not  in  num- 
bers onl}^  but  in  the  many  able  men  in  their  ranks.  Chief  among 
these  are  the  Scotch  commissioners.  The  leader  of  these,  Alexander 
^  Henderson,  has  been  three  times  moderator  of  the  Scotch  Assembly, 
wrote  the  National  Covenant  of  1638,  and  the  International  League  and 
Covenant  of  1G43,  and  is  reputed  the  wisest  member  and  most  eloquent 
divine  in  the  body;  and  no  one  exerts  more  influence  over  it.  On  the 
same  bench  are  the  other  Scots,  the  learned  and  saintly  Samuel 
Rutherford,  whose  "  Religious  Letters  "  have  been  a  precious  inherit- 
ance to  Christianity.  The  still  more  learned  Robert  Baillie,  the 
master  of  thirteen  languages,  and  a  theologian  of  such  fame  that  the 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  19 

four  Scotch  universities  each  offered  him  the  chair  of  Diviuitv  aoout 
the  same  time.  His  extensive  correspondence  furnishes  us  with  much  x 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  inner  history  of  the  Assembly.  The  youngest 
of  the  Scotch  commissionex's,  and  the  youngest  member  of  the  body, 
being  only  thirty  years  of  age,  is  George  Gillespie.  He  is  the  ablest 
debator,  and  is  considered  the  one  most  thorough  in  his  acquaintance 
with  the  matters  engaging  their  deliberations ;  a  brilliant  speakei',  of 
whom  it  may  be  said,  as  of  the  youthful  Francis  Bacon  by  Ben  Johnson, 
"The  fear  of  every  one  that  heard  him  was  lest  he  should  make  an 
end."  In  the  Scottish  delegation  sit  two  elders.  Lord  Maitland  and 
the  accomplished  lawyer  and  statesman,  Archibald  Johnston,  of  War- 
riston,  both  now  zealous  covenanters,  but  the  first  destined,  after  the 
restoration,  to  become  an  apostate,  and,  under  the  title  of  the  Duke  of 
Lauderdale,  to  be  a  ruthless  and  bloody  persecutor  of  the  Scotch 
Covenanters;  the  second  to  stand  fast  to  his  principles,  and  to  sufter 
death  in  the  persecution  conducted  by  his  present  associate. 

Back  of  the  Scotch  sit  the  distinguished  delegates  of  parliament. 
Among  the  Lords  we  note  three  j^owerful  nobles,  the  Earls  of  North- 
umberland, Salisbury  and  Bedford.  In  the  veins  of  Northumberland 
courses  the  blood  of  Harry  Percy,  the  Hotspur  of  Shakespeare.  His 
brother,  George  Percy,  had  been  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  promi- 
nent of  the  Jamestown  colony.  Salisbury  is  the  son  of  the  second 
Cecil,  who,  with  his  father,  had  been  Elizabeth's  great  prime  ministers, 
and  whose  talents  have  been  inherited  by  the  present  premier  of  Eng- 
land. Bedford  mostly  interests  us  in  his  famous  son.  Sir  William 
Russell,  the  intimate  friend  of  Algernon  Sidney,  both  of  whom  became 
martyrs  to  Ihe  cause  of  ci^dl  and  religious  liberty  after  the  restoration 
of  Charles  II.,  and  whose  genius,  piety,  and  heroic  deaths  have  fixed 
them  as  twin  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  in  the  galaxy  of  English 
heroes.  But  two  other  Lords,  Wharton  and  Howard,  excite  our  special 
interest  because  of  their  narrow  escape  from  the  vengeance  of  Straf- 
ford. They  were  brave  enough  to  petition  the  king  to  make  peace 
with  Scotland,  and  for  this  were  charged  with  treason  and  thrown  into 
the  tower,  from  which  they  have  been  recenth'  released. 

Among  the  Commons  we  see  the  learned  John  Selden,  Sir  Heniy 
Vane,  Jr.,  distinguished  equally  in  New  England  as  in  England ; 
John  P^'m,  the  eminent  parliamentary  leader;  Francis  Rouse,  famous 
for  his  version  of  the  Psalms;  Sir  John  Evelyn,  whose  diary  is  a  clas- 
sic; Mr.  Sergeant  Wilde,  afterwards  Chief  Baron  of  the  Exchequer; 
Bulstrode  Whitelock,  afterwards  Keeper  of  the  Great  Seals ;  Oliver  St. 
John,  afterwards  Chief  Justice  of  Common  Pleas,  and  Sir  Matthew 


20  The  Westminster  Assembly 

Hale,  the  future  great  Chief  Justice  of  England,  eminent  for  his  "pietj 
as  well  as  his  learning,  whose  "Contemplations,  Moral  and  Divine," 
furnished  the  model  on  which  the  character  of  our  great  Washington 
was  formed  by  his  mother.  In  front  of  the  Scotch  and  to  their  right, 
where  sit  the  English  divines,  the  figures  which  first  strike  us  are 
those  of  John  Arrowsmith  and  Herbert  Palmer,  because  of  their 
•physical  defects;  Dr.  Arrowsmith,  from  the  loss  of  an  eye,  and  Dr. 
Palmer,  from  diminutive  size,  on  account  of  which  he  is  called  by  his 
associates  "Little  Palmer."  Both  are  among  the  ablest  men  in  the 
body,  and  its  work  shows  their  impress.  As  for  the  rest,  we  can  only 
note  some  of  the  most  prominent  leaders :  Edmund  Calamy,  no  less 
courageous  than  learned,  who  did  not  hesitate  to  rebuke  Cromwell 
and  Monk  for  their  misdeeds  when  they  were  at  the  height  of  their 
power ;  Thomas  Gataker,  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  able,  learned 
and  pious  divines  of  his  age,  whose  name  as  a  scholar  stands  nearly 
on  a  level  with  that  of  Selden  and  Usher ;  Stephen  Marshall,  whose 
ability  and  activity  in  the  cause  of  parliament  caused  Clarendon  to 
calumniate  him  in  his  History  of  the  liehellion  ;  Lazarus  Seaman,  de- 
scribed by  his  associate,  Dr.  Calamy,  as  "a  great  divine,  thoroughly 
studied  in  the  original  languages  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,"  and  by 
another,  as  " almost  invincible  as  a  disputant";  Matthew  Newcomen,  ex- 
celling in  wit  and  originality,  an  accomplished  scholar  and  a  gifted 
orator. 

But  time  fails  us  to  inquire  further  as  to  the  most  distinguished 
members,  for  the  preliminary  business  of  the  morning  has  been  accom- 
plished, and  the  order  of  the  day  has  been  taken  up  for  debate  It  is 
the  rejjort  of  one  of  the  three  grand  committees  of  the  body,  that 
"church  courts  have  the  power  of  censure  and  excommunication,"  and 
the  discussion  is  to  be  on  Matthew  xviii.  15-18.  Mr.  Byfield  first 
reads  the  proposition  and  then  the  text  of  Scripture:  "Moreover,  if 
thy  brother  shall  trespass  against  thee,  go  tell  him  his  fault  between  ' 
thee  and  him  alone ;  if  he  shall  hear  thee,  thou  hast  gained  thy 
brother.  But  if  he  will  not  hear  thee,  then  take  with  thee  one  or  two 
more,  that  in  the  mouth  of  two  or  three  witnesses  every  word  may  be 
established.  And  if  he  shall  neglect  to  hear  them,  tell  it  to  the  church; 
but  if  he  neglect  to  hear  the  church  let  him  be  unto  thee  a  heathen 
man  and  a  publican.  Verily  I  say  unto  you,  whatsoever  ye  shall  bind 
on  earth  shall  be  bound  in  heaven,  and  whatsoever  ye  shall  loose  on 
earth  shall  be  loosed  in  heaven." 

The  Erastians,  feeling  the  importance  of  the  question,  put  forward 
their  ablest  champion.     The  learned  John  Selden  arises  to  address  the 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  21 

chair,  and  all  eyes  are  fixed  on  bini,  for  his  great  learninj^  and  sub- 
tility  of  argument  are  relied  on  by  his  party,  and  dreaded  by  their 
opponents.  He  has  an  air  of  su])eiiority  in  his  address,  arising-  from 
a  consciousness  of  great  learning-  and  -vN'ide-spread  reputation.  We 
can  only  note  the  substance  of  his  speech.     He  says : 

"  There  is  nothing  in  Matthew  xviii  of  excommunication  or  juris- 
diction, and  they  could  not  be  exercised  by  the  ancient  church  till  the 
Church  of  Rome  got  its  power  from  the  emperor.  Some  late  men, 
as  Dominicus  Solo,  and  SajTus,  and  Henriquez,  sa}'^  that  there  is  some 
power  given  to  the  church,  which  the  church  afterwards  did  specifi- 
cate to  be  a  power  of  excommunication.  Matthew's  Gospel  was  the 
first  that  was  written,  about  eight  years  after  Christ's  ascension,  the 
first  year  of  Claudius ;  it  was  written  in  Hebrew,  and  translated  into 
Greek  by  John ;  though  the  Hebrew  that  Matthew  wrote  be  not  ex- 
tant, yet  two  editions  of  the  Gospel  are  in  Hebrew,  one  by  Mun- 
ster,  another  by  Tilius;  we  find  in  Tilius'  edition,  Kahal  (Matt,  xviii.) 
and  (y-uedah  (Matt,  xviii ),  though  in  Munster's,  Kahal  be  in  both 
places.  Now,  there  being  no  place  of  the  New  Testament  written 
when  this  was  written,  we  must  expound  it  by  the  custom  of  the  Jews, 
which,  according  to  the  law  (Lev.  xix.  17),  was,  that  when  one  offended 
his  brother,  the  offended  brother  required  satisfaction ;  and  if  he  get 
it  not,  speak  to  him  before  two  or  three  witnesses ;  and  if  he  hear 
them  not,  to  tell  it  to  a  great  number  (for  which  he  offers  to  show 
them  many  Hebrew  authors  and  Talmudists).  They  had  in  Jerusa- 
lem, besides  the  great  Sanhedrim,  two  courts  of  twenty-three,  and  in 
every  city  one  court  of  twenty-three.  The  casting  out  of  the  syna- 
gogue was  only  the  putting  of  a  man  in  that  condition  that  he  might  not 
come  within  four  cubits  of  another;  any  man  being  twelve  years  of 
age  might  excommunicate  another;  not  that  he  -was  altogether  cast  off 
from  having  anything  to  do  with  the  synagogue.  The  convocation  is 
called  clerus  anglicanus,  and  the  2:)arliament,  populus  anglicanus.  So 
here  ixxiedah  and  JUcclesia  signify  only  a  select  number.  The  word 
is  used  in  one  place  for  woman :  Deut.  xxiii.  '  shall  not  enter  into  the 
congregation.'  Christ  when  he  said  Die  Jicclesim  was  in  Capernaum, 
where  there  was  a  court  of  twenty-three.  The  meaning  is,  tell  the 
Sanhedrim,  which  can  redress  the  wrong.  If  the  Jewish  state  had 
been  Christian,  their  civil  government  might  have  continufed,  though 
the  ceremonies  were  gone;  so  that  Ucclcfiiit  here  would  have  been  a 
civil  court." 

When  he  has  finished,  Mr.  Herle  and  Mr.  Marshall,  two  able  de- 
baters, attempt  in  succession  to  answer  him,  but  as  they  do  not  do  so 


22  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

satisfactorily,  we  need  not  take  note  of  their  arguments.  When  Mr. 
Marshall  has  finished,  the  ej^es  of  the  Presbyterians  turn  wistfully  to 
the  Scotch  commissioners,  and  ai'e  fixed  on  George  Gillespie.  He  had 
been  seen  to  use  his  pencil  freely  while  Mr.  Selden  was  speaking,  aud 
it  was  supposed  that  he  was  taking  notes  of  his  speech,  that  he  might 
reply ;  but  the  commissioner  who  sat  next  to  him  afterwards  reported 
that  there  was  nothing  on  the  paper  before  him,  but  such  sentences 
as  these,  "Lord,  send  light.  Give  assistance.  Lord,  defend  thy  cause." 
He  rises  slowly  and  with  evident  diffidence,  and  commences  his  address 
with  a  handsome  compliment  to  the  learning  disjjlayed  by  Mr.  Selden. 
We  can  only  note  the  heads  of  his  speech.     He  says: 

"It  is  a  spiritual,  not  a  civil,  court  which  is  meant  by  the  church,' 
Matt,  xviii. ;  for,  ].  Suhjecta  materia  is  spiritual.  'If  thy  brother 
trespass  against  thee,'  is  not  meant  of  personal  or  civil  injuries,  but  of 
any  scandal  given  to  our  brother,  whereby  we  trespass  against  him, 
inasmuch  as  we  trespass  against  the  law  of  charity.  Augustine  and 
Testatus  expound  it  of  any  scandal,  and  the  coherence  confirmeth  it ; 
for  scandals  were  spoken  of  before  in  that  chapter.  2.  The  end  is 
spiritual — the  gaining  of  the  offender's  soul,  which  is  not  the  end  of  a 
civil  court  3.  The  persons  are  spiritual,  for  Christ  speaks  to  his 
apostles.  4.  The  manner  of  proceeding  is  spiritual  (verses  19,  20) — 
prayer,  and  doing  all  in  the  name  of  Christ ;  which  places,  not  only 
our  divines,  but  Testatus  and  Hugo  Cardinalis,  expound  of  meetings 
for  church  censures,  not  of  meetings  for  worship.  5.  The  censure  is 
spiritual — binding  of  the  soul,  or  retaining  of  sins.  (Vs.  18,  compared 
with  Matt.  xvi.  19;  John  xx.  23.)  6.  Christ  would  not  have  sent  his 
apostles  for  private  injuries  to  a  civil  court,  especially  those  who  were 
living  among  heathens.  (1  Cor.  vi.  1.)  7.  If  we  look  even  to  the 
Jewish  customs,  they  had  spiritual  censures.  To  be  held  '  as  a  heathen 
man  and  a  publican  '  imports  a  restraint  a  sacris  ;  for  heathens  were 
not  admitted  into  the  temple.  (Ezek.  xliv.  7-9;  Acts  xxi.  28.)  So 
the  profane  were  debarred  from  the  temple.  Josephus  {Antiq.,  lib.  xix., 
cap.  17)  tells  us  one  Simon,  a  doctor  of  the  law  of  Moses,  in  Jerusalem, 
did  accuse  King  Agrippa  as  a  wicked  man,  that  should  not  be  ad- 
mitted to  the  temple.  Philo  {Lib.  de  fSacri/i.ca/itihxs)  writeth,  it  was 
the  custom  in  his  own  time  that  a  mauslayer  was  not  admitted  into 
the  temple.  The  Scriptures  also  giveth  light  in  this;  for  if  they  that 
were  ceremoniallj'  unclean  might  not  enter  into  the  temple,  how  shall 
we  think  that  they  which  were  morally  unclean  might  enter?  " 

So  ably  does  he  enforce  these  positions,  and  expose  the  subtle  fallacy 
of  Selden's  argument,  that  Selden  himself  realizes  that  he  has  been 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  23 

vanquished  on  his  own  chosen  ground,  and  turning  to  his  neighbor,  he 
says  frankly,  "  That  young  man  by  this  single  speech  has  swept  away 
the  labors  of  ten  years  of  my  life."  No  reply  to  Gillespie  is  attempted, 
and  the  Assembly  votes  the  prop^isition  as  reported,  with  but  few 
negatives. 

In  such  debates  the  Assembly  was  long  engaged,  as  the  diflerent 
parties  w\atched  closely  every  proposition  brought  forward,  and  dis- 
cussed every  point  on  which  they  differed,  at  great  length.  As  the 
abolition  of  prelacy  left  the  church  without  any  recognized  mode  of 
ordination,  or  government,  the  parliament  soon  after  signing  the  Cove- 
nant as  we  have  seen,  directed  the  Assembly  to  take  up  at  once  the^ 
topics  of  discipline,  and  Directory  of  Worship  and  Government.  In 
prepai'ing  these,  the  greatest  difficulties  arose  from  the  different  views 
of  church  government  held  by  the  three  parties  into  which  the  body 
was  divided.  The  great  contest  was  between  the  Indei^endents  and 
Presbyterians,  but  the  Erastians  took  part  whenever  they  deemed 
their  particular  tenets  involved.  Finding  that  the  Presbyterians  out- 
voted them  in  the  Assembly,  the  Independents  determined  to  appeal 
to  parUament  and  the  public,  and  published  a  ver}-  able  and  adroit 
defence  of  their  doctrines  and  conduct,  which  is'known  as  the  Ajiolo- 
getical  Narration,  in  which  they  attempted,  by  flattery  of  parliament 
and  covert  attack  upon  the  Scotch  commissioners,  to  control  the 
Assembly  through  outside  influences.  They  were  answered  and  com- 
pletely refuted  by  publications  emanating  from  leading  Presbyterian 
divines,  but  the  public  controversy  left  a  taint  of  bitterness  in  their 
subsequent  debates  in  the  Assembly.  Notwithstanding  this,  by  the 
tact  and  conciliatory  conduct  of  the  Scotch  commissioners,  the  Inde- 
pendents would  have  been  induced  to  yield  their  opposition  to  the 
most  important  of  the  positions  of  the  Presbyterians  in  framing  a  form 
of  government,  had  it  not  been  for  Mr.  Nye,  their  main  leader.  He 
was  intimate  with  Cronnwell,  who,  it  is  believed,  did  not  desire  Presby- 
terianism  to  be  established  in  England,  being  himself  an  Independent. 
When  the  Book  of  Discipline  and  Form  of  Government  had  been  pre- 
pared and  presented  to  parliament,  the  Erastians  in  that  body  suc- 
ceeded in  passing  ordinances  for  changes,  in  which  the  power  of 
parliament  over  church  courts  was  claimed.  These  were  firmly  resisted 
by  the  Assembly,  and  especially  by  the  Scotch  commissioners,  who 
considered  it  a  breach  of  the  Covenant ;  but  as  the  parliamentary 
forces  had  now  overcome  the  army  of  the  king,  parliament  assumed 
the  attitude  of  offended  dignity,  and  made  rude  communications  to 
the  Assembly.     But  when  the  kin  ••  fled  to  the  Scotch  army,  fearing 

\ 


24  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

the  effects  of  offending  the  Scotch  people,  who  had  shown  more  dispo- 
sition to  come  to  terms  with  him  than  the  English,  parliament  on  June 
9,  1646,  adopted  the  work  of  the  Assembly,  divided  England  into 
presbyteries,  and  ordered  the  election  of  elders.  The  Directory  of 
"Worship  had  been  completed,  and  ratified  b}^  parliament  previously 
in  the  winter  of  1644. 

On  the  subject  of  Psalmody,  there  was  difficulty  in  the  Assembly. 
Mr.  Francis  Rouse,  a  member  of  parliament,  had  completed  a  metrical 
version  of  the  Book  of  Psalms,  which  he  communicated  to  that  body, 
and  obtained  an  order  that  the  Assembly  should  take  it  into  considera- 
tion. The  principle  that  he  contended  for  was,  that  in  using  the  Psalms 
in  worship,  the  very  words  of  the  sacred  text  Bhould  be  retained. 
After  two  years  consideration,  correction  and  revision,  both  in  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  the  version  was  reported  to  parliament,  and  received 
its  approbation  on  the  14th  of  November,  1645.  The  version  after 
further  revision  was  adopted  by  the  Assembly  and  parliament  of  Scotr 
land,  and  is  still  in  use  among  Presbyterians  in  Great  Britain  and  the 
United  States.  While  it  retained  much  of  the  devotional  spirit  of 
David,  it  is  hardly  a  fair  representation  of  his  genius  as  a  poet 

After  the  Assembly  had  pretty  well  settled  the  principles  of  the  Form 
of  Government  an  able  committee  was  appointed  to  compose  a  Confes- 
sion of  Faith.  Most  prominent  on  this  committee  were  Dr.  Gouge, 
Dr.  Hoyle,  Mr.  Herle,  Mr.  Gataker,  Mr.  Newcomen,  Mr.  Arrowsmith, 
Mr.  Vines,  Dr.  Tuckney,  and  Dr.  Reynolds,  who  had  as  assistants  the 
Scotch  commissioners.  The  manner  in  which  this  most  remarkable 
of  all  Confessions  of  Faith  was  composed  is  exceedingly  interesting. 
First  the  great  sacred  truths  of  the  Bible  were  arranged  in  a  system- 
atic order;  then  these  were  divided  into  thirty-two  heads,  or  chap- 
ters ;  these  were  again  subdivided  into  sections,  and  they  were  assigned 
to  sub-committees,  each  taking  a  specific  topic  for  concentrated  de- 
liberation. The  work  of  the  suli-committees  was  laid  before  the  entire 
committee,  and  debated,  and  altered,  till  all  were  of  one  mind.  Each 
chapter  thus  prepared  was  reported  to  the  Assembly,  and  again  sub- 
jected to  the  most  minute  and  careful  investigation  in  every  paragraph, 
sentence,  and  word,  so  that  all  that  profound  learning,  acute  intellect, 
and  sincere  piety  could  accomplish,  was  concentrated  in  this  most  per- 
fect statement  of  systematic  theology  ever  framed. 

There  seems  to  have  been  much  less  difference  of  opinion  as  to  this 
important  paper  in  the  Assembly  than  as  to  the  other  papers  we  have 
noticed,  as  the  body  was  very  thoroughly  Calvinistic  in  its  theology. 
Two  questions  only  are  mentioned  as  having  caused  long  debates,  the 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  25 

subject  of  election  and  of  government  by  church  officers  as  distinct 
from  the  civil  magistrate.  Both  of  these,  however,  were  decided  by 
overwhelming  majorities  in  favor  of  the  Presbyterian  advocates.  Yet 
the  distinction  between  church  and  state  was  not  made  as  clear  as  it 
should  have  been,  and  the  twentieth  and  twenty-third  chapters  are 
liable  to  criticism  with  our  views  on  the  subject.  This  was  to  be  ex- 
pected, as  the  Assembly  had  been  called  by  parliament  and  its  work 
was  to  be  approved  by  it  and  established  in  the  kingdom,  and  the 
Assembly  seemed  forced  to  admit  the  power  of  the  civil  government  to 
this  extent.  On  the  3rd  of  December,  1G4G,  the  completed  work  was 
presented  to  parliament,  and  the  Assembly  was  ordered  to  add  the 
Scripture  references  relied  on  as  proof  for  every  part.  This  was  done 
by  a  committee  consisting  of  Mr.  Wilson,  Mr.  Bytield  and  Mr.  Gower. 
The  Confession  was  again  reported  to  parliament  with  the  text-proofs, 
and  was  j^riuted  May  11, 1647.  It  was  not  approved  by  both  houses  of 
parliament  till  June  28,  1648,  and  then  the  chapters  on  marriage  and  J 
divorce  and  on  church  government  failed  to  receive  its  sanction,  the 
latter  for  not  allowing  enough  power  to  the  civil  magistrate.  These 
were  recommitted,  and  the  latter  were  never  afterwards  acted  on  by 
parliament,  the  Assembly  having  stood  firmly  by  their  position  that 
the  church  should  be  governed  by  officers  appointed  by  Christ,  its 
head. 

After  the  Confession  was  completed,  the  Assembly  took  up  the  fram- 
ing of  the  Catechisms,  based  on  the  Confession,  which  had  been  pre-  J 
viously  referred  to  a  committee,  to  which  the  committee  on  the  Con- 
fession was  now  added.  The  same  systematic  method  of  work  was 
followed  as  in  the  case  of  the  Confession.  Dr.  Anthony  Tuckney,  who 
had  been  a  fellow  of  Cambridge,  is  credited  with  much  of  the  work 
on  the  Catechisms,  and  he  is  said  to  have  composed  the  excpii- 
site  exposition  of  the  commandments.  With  him,  Drs.  Arrowsmith 
and  Newcomen  are  credited  with  most  of  the  work.  One  beautiful 
incident  said  to  have  occurred  in  the  committee,  though  often  related, 
must  not  be  omitted  here.  At  an  early  meeting  the  question,  "What 
is  God,"  was  to  be  discussed.  The  sublimity  of  the  divine  idea  filled 
the  minds  of  the  members  with  reverential  fear,  and  all  shrank  from 
the  task.  With  a  sense  of  deep  humility  it  was  resolved  that  the 
youngest  member,  George  Gillespie,  should  make  the  attempt.  He 
at  first  modestly  declined,  but  upon  being  urged  to  do  so,  asked  that 
they  first  unite  with  him  in  prayer  for  divine  guidance.  Then  in  slow 
and  solemn  accents  he  began,  "  O  God,  thou  art  a  Spirit,  infinite, 
eternal,  and  unchangeable  in  thy  being,  wisdom,  power,  holiness,  jus- 


26  The  Westminstek  Assembly. 

tice,  goodness  and  truth."  When  he  closed  his  prayex*  one  of  the 
members  wrote  down  this  sentence,  and  the  committee  at  once 
adopted  it  as  the  best  answer  that  could  be  framed,  one  that 
seemed  given  by  God  as  a  description  of  himself  to  his  devout 
servants. 

We  find  from  the  journal  of  the  Assembly,  discovered  of  late  years, 
that  the  Larger  Catechism  was  first  composed  and  presented  to  parlia- 
ment on  October  24,  1647,  and  the  Shorter  Catechism  was  finished 
and  presented  November  19,  1647.  The  proofs  were  not  ready  for 
presentation  till  April  14,  1648.  The  work  was  approved  by  parlia- 
ment without  difficulty.  On  October  19,  1647,  an  affecting  scene  oc- 
curred in  the  Assembly.  The  Kev.  Samuel  Kutherford,  the  most  be- 
loved perhaps  of  all  the  Scotch  commissioners,  arose,  and  moved  that  it 
be  entered  on  the  record  that  the  commissioners  from  the  Church  of 
Scotland  had  given  their  assistance  during  all  the  time  of  the  debat- 
ing and  perfecting  of  the  four  things  mentioned  in  the  Covenant,  viz. : 
the  Directory  of  Worship,  the  Confession  of  Faith,  Form  of  Church 
Government,  and  the  Catechism,  during  which  time  some  of  the  said 
commissioners  were  always  present,  assisting  in  the  work.  This  being 
ordered,  the  commissioners  formally  took  their  leave,  after  being 
warmly  thanked  for  their  valuable  assistance  by  the  prolocutor.  On 
this  interesting  occasion  only  Rutherford,  Gillespie,  and  Warriston,  of 
the  Scotch  delegation,  appear  to  have  been  present.  Maitland  had 
returned  to  look  after  his  private  interests,  Baillie  to  prepare  for  the 
approaching  meeting  of  the  Scotch  Assembh^,  and  Henderson,  ex- 
hausted by  his  labors  in  the  Assembly  and  on  the  commission  to  treat 
with  the  king,  had  fallen  asleep  in  Jesus,  soon  to  be  followed  by 
the  brilliant  Gillespie,  who  at  thirty-six  fell  an  early  victim  to  over- 
work. 

On  April  14,  1648,  at  the  one  thousand  and  fifty-first  session  of  the 
Assembly,  the  prolocutor  informed  the  body  that  he  had  delivered  the 
Catechisms  with  proofs  to  parliament,  and  the  task  for  which  the  Assem- 
bl}^  was  constituted  having  been  completed,  it  should  have  been  dissolved. 
But  parliament  continued  it  to  aid  in  introducing  the  Presbyterian  sys- 
tem by  examining  candidates  for  the  ministry  and  applicants  for 
vacant  churches,  and  thus  its  life  was  formally  prolonged  till  February 
22,  1649,  having  sat  five  years,  sis  months  and  twenty-two  days,  in 
which  time  it  held  1,163  sessions.  After  that  date  a  remnant  of  the 
Assembly  was  changed  into  a  committee  for  the  trial  and  examination 
of  ministei's,  and  it  continued  to  act  until  Mai'ch  25,  1652,  the  day 
when  Cromwell  with  a  military  force  drove  parliament  from  its  hall. 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  27 

locked  the  door,  and  put  the  key  into  his  pocket.  With  the  parha- 
meut  which  called  it  into  existence,  the  Asseml)ly  then  expired. 

The  work  .of  the  Assembly  had  been  reported  to  the  Scotch  Assem- 
bly from  time  to  time,  and  by  it  solemnly  ratified,  the  last  approval 
being  of  the  Catechisms,  in  July,  1048,  and  it  was  also  ratified  by  the 
Scotch  Parliament.  It  has  ever  since  remained  a  rich  inheritance  to 
Scotland,  though  it  was  attempted  afterwards  to  be  taken  from  her 
during  a  bitter  persecution  of  twenty-eight  years. 

On  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  May  29,  IGGO,  prelac}'  was  again 
established  in  England,  and  only  the  dissenting  Presbyterians  have 
retained  the  work  of  the  Westminster  Assembly  there. 

In  America  in  1729,  the  Synod  of  Philadelphia,  then  the  highest 
church  court,  formally  adopted  the  Westminster  Confession  and  Cate- 
chisms, declaring,  at  the  same  time,  that  they  did  not  receive  the  twen- 
tieth and  twenty-third  chapters  "in  any  such  sense  as  to  suppose 
the  civil  magistrate  hath  a  controlling  power  over  synods  with  respect 
to  the  exercise  of  their  ministerial  authority,  or  power  to  persecute  any 
iov  their  religion."  They  also  recommended  the  Directory  for  Wor- 
ship, Discipline,  and  Government  to  the  churches  under  their  care  In 
1787  the  United  Synod  of  New  York  and  Philadelphia,  in  prepai-ing 
for  the  change  into  a  General  Assembly,  altered  the  language  of  the 
chapters  above  mentioned,  and  of  chapter  thirty-one,  so  as  to  elimi- 
nate all  power  of  civil  government  in  calling  church  courts,  or  enforc- 
ing their  orders ;  thus  carrying  to  its  logical  conclusion  the  declaration 
in  the  thirtieth  chapter  of  the  Confession,  that,  "  The  Lord  Jesus,  as 
king  and  head  of  his  church,  hath  therein  appointed  a  government  in 
the  hands  of  church  officers,  distinct  from  the  civil  magistrate  " ;  and 
in  chapter  twenty,  that  "  God  alone  is  Lord  of  the  conscience."  Vir- 
ginia, in  her  bill  of  rights  in  1776,  was  the  first  State  that  ever  em- 
bodied the  jorinciple  of  entire  separation  of  church  and  state  in  her 
fundamental  law,  which  she  did  in  the  declaration  written  by  one 
raised  under  the  ministry  of  Samuel  Davies,  "  that  religion,  or  the  duty 
which  we  owe  to  the  Creator,  and  the  manner  of  discharging  it,  can  be 
directed  only  by  reason  and  conviction,  not  by  force  and  violence ;  and, 
therefore,  all  men  are  equally  entitled  to  the  free  exercise  of  religion 
accoi'ding  to  the  dictates  of  conscience."  This  principle  has  been  in- 
serted in  every  State  constitution  in  the  union,  and  embodied  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  thus  securing  for  us  an  entire  separ- 
ation of  church  and  state,  and  perfect  religious  freedom,  the  full  con- 
summation of  the  Reformation,  and  the  logical  conclusion  of  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Confession. 


28  The  Westminster  Assembly. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  great  p-id  given  to  the  Assembly  by  the  Scotch 
divines  who  sat  with  it.  The  body  also  received  material  aid  from 
other  sources.  The  ministers  of  London,  some  sixty  in  number,  were 
accustomed  to  meet  every  Monday  in  Sion  College,  to  consult  how  they 
could  best  support  their  Presbyterian  brethren  in  the  Assembly.  Both 
by  petitions  to  parliament  and  by  publications,  they  defended  the  work 
of  the  Assembly,  and  especially  maintained  the  position  that  the  Pres- 
byterian form  of  government  had  divine  sanction,  and  that  the  civil 
magistrate  should  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  censures  of  the  church, 
and  no  right  to  interfere  with  them.  They  afterwards  accepted  the 
work  of  the  Assembly,  and  constituted  the  Synod  of  London. 

The  Assembly  also  received  aid  from  the  reformed  churches  on  the 
continent.  Soon  after  the  body  entered  on  its  work  it  addressed  a 
circular  letter  to  the  churches  in  the  seven  united  provinces,  in  Geneva, 
in  the  Protestant  cantons  of  Switzerland,  in  Hesse,  Hannau,  Anhault, 
and  at  Paris.  This  letter,  said  to  have  been  suggested  by  Henderson, 
represented  the  occasion  of  the  calling  of  the  Assembly  in  a  severe 
arraignment  of  the  efforts  of  Charles  to  restore  papacy  in  England, 
and  earnestly  requested  aid  in  the  work  undertaken  by  parliament 
through  the  Assembly.  To  this  letter,  kind  and  encouraging  responses 
were  received,  and  the  advice  of  the  most  learned  divines  on  the  conti- 
nent was  obtained  through  private  corresjDondence  on  many  of  the 
questions  discussed  in  the  Assembly.  The  principal  correspondent  on 
the  pai'tof  the  Assembly  was  Robert  Baillie,  whose  letters  are  of  great 
value  in  giving  us  an  insight  into  its  working.  The  celebrated  Apol- 
lonius,  of  Holland,  wrote  a  letter  which  was  so  valuable  that  it  was 
printed  for  the  use  of  the  Assembly.  The  Elector  Palatine,  the  Pro- 
testant son-in-law  of  James,  and  the  ancestor  of  George  I.,  attended 
some  of  the  meetings,  and  took  part  in  the  debates  But  of  course 
the  members  of  the  Assembly  were  responsible  for  their  work,  and  are 
entitled  to  the  honor  attached  to  it.  Royalists,  high-churchmen  and 
papists  have  attempted  to  depreciate  them,  both  as  to  learning  and 
pure  motives,  but  orthodox  evangelical  theologians  have,  with  one 
accord,  defended  them.  The  testimony  of  the  saintly  Richard  Baxter, 
who  knew  so  many  of  them  personally,  should  forever  stop  the  mouths 
of  their  detractors.  Said  he,  "The  divines  Avere  of  eminent  learning 
and  godliness  and  ministerial  abilities  and  fidelity;  and  being  not 
worthy  to  be  one  of  them  ujyself,  I  may  the  more  freely  speak  that 
truth  which  I  know,  even  in  the  face  of  malice  and  envy,  that  as  far  as 
I  am  able  to  judge  by  information  of  all  history,  and  by  other  evi- 
dences, the  Christian  world,  since  the  days  of  the  apostles,  had  never 


The  Westminster  Assembly.  29 

a  synod  of  more  excellent  divines  than  this  synod  and  the  Synod  of 
Dort."  And  this  testimony  is  the  more  important  because  Baxter  did 
not  agree  in  all  points  with  the  form  of  government  framed  by  the 
Assembly. 

But  the  most  conclusive  and  imperishable  testimony  to  the  learning 
and  piety  of  the  members  is  contained  in  the  writings  they  have  left, 
and  in  the  work  they  accomplished  as  an  assembly.  I  have  examined 
the  sketches  of  one  hundred  and  six  of  the  divines  who  sat  in  the 
body,  and  I  find  that  their  publislied  works  number  near  nine  hun- 
dred and  fifty,  of  which  over  five  hundred  are  sermons  preached  be- 
fore parliament  and  before  other  audiences.  Many  of  these  publica- 
tions are  still  extant  and  in  demand  among  theologians,  and  fully  con- 
firm the  estimate  of  their  authors  by  Baxter.  Nothing,  however,  can 
equal  the  testimony  in  their  behalf  that  is  borne  by  the  standards 
they  framed  for  the  church  of  God,  the  richest  legacy  given  it  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles.  In  pure  theology,  drawn  from  the  deep  well 
of  revelation,  in  clearness  of  statement,  and  precision  of  language,  no- 
thing equal  to  them  has  ever  appeared,  nor,  in  all  probabilit}',  ever 
will.  The  Assembly  was  charged  with  the  task  of  bringing  the  church 
in  England  into  unison  with  the  reformed  churches  in  Scotland  and 
on  the  continent.  It  grasped,  however,  the  idea  of  a  grand  Christian 
alliance,  and  framed  standards  around  which  all  Christendom  nfight, 
and,  let  us  hope,  will  finally,  rally.  Whatever  may  be  the  forms  of 
government  into  which  the  church  ma}^  be  divided,  the  Confession  and 
Catechisms  should  be  their  common  property:  for  they  constitute  an 
impregnable  fortress  in  which  pure  Christianity  may  safely  abide  and 
defy  the  darts  of  its  enemies,  whether  they  be  thrown  by  the  hand  of 
the  papist,  the  heretic,  or  the  infidel.  The  great  struggle  with  papacy 
caused  the  Assembly  to  attack  it  b}'  name,  but  every  heresy  which  ever 
troubled  the  church  was  passed  in  review,  and  though  not  named, 
was  completely  refuted  by  a  distinct  statement  of  the  opposing  truth, 
established  by  abundant  Scripture  authority.  We  cannot  proj^erly 
appreciate  the  Christian  courage  of  this  Assembly  without  recalling 
the  fact  that  they  risked  their  lives  in  doing  their  work.  The  king 
had  denounced  the  body  and  the  solemn  League  and  Covenant  as 
treasonable,  and  had  he  prevailed  in  the  struggle  would  very  certainly 
have  sought  their  lives.  % 

It  would  be  interesting  to  trace  the  personal  history  of  each  active 
member  of  this  grand  Assembly,  but  I  have  already  trespassed  too 
long  on  j'our  patience.  I  need  only  say  that  in  the  troublous  times 
which  ensued  after  the  restoration  of  Charles  II.,  which  came  with  a 


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